By KAREN HAWKINS  Associated Press Writer
2:57 p.m. CDT, July 1, 2010

CHICAGO — A man who claims former Chicago police Lt. Jon Burge tortured him into falsely confessing to murder has filed a sweeping civil suit that names everyone he blames for helping to wrongfully convict him, including Mayor Richard Daley.

Ronald Kitchen's federal lawsuit comes just days after Burge was convicted of lying about the torture of suspects. Burge was convicted Monday of perjury and obstruction of justice charges for allegedly lying in another civil suit when he said he'd never participated in or witnessed any torture.

Kitchen served 21 years in prison -- 13 of them on death row -- for the 1988 murders of two women and three children. He said he confessed to the murders only after Burge and two officers beat, kicked and taunted him over 16 hours, striking him with a phone receiver, a phone book and a blackjack.

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Kitchen, who's now 44, was freed on July 7, 2009, after the Illinois Attorney General's office dropped the charges against him. He received a certificate of innocence from the Cook County Circuit Court.

His lawsuit claims that Daley, who was Cook County state's attorney in the 1980s, helped to conceal the abuse committed by Burge and the men under his command.

"Mayor Daley is personally responsible for prolonging the wrongful imprisonment of Ronald Kitchen," said Locke Bowman, one of Kitchen's attorneys, on Thursday. "He pretended that torture didn't happen."

In a statement, the city of Chicago's law department said officials haven't seen the lawsuit and wouldn't comment on specific allegations.

"However, to the extent that there are any claims against Mayor Daley, it is important to note that Jon Burge was an employee in good standing at the Chicago Police Department under previous mayoral administrations, and was fired during Mayor Daley's tenure. We strongly dispute any allegation that the Mayor was involved in a conspiracy," the statement said.

Kitchen's suit also names Burge, Cook County and the Cook County state's attorney's office, among others. Messages left for spokesmen with those offices also weren't immediately returned.

Attorney James Sotos, who represents Burge in another civil case, said he hadn't yet seen Kitchen's suit and that the city of Chicago probably hasn't appointed anyone to represent Burge yet.

Kitchen's attorneys said that under a Chicago ordinance, the city is supposed to stop paying for Burge's lawyers now that he's been convicted of a crime, but that doesn't appear to have happened.

The attorneys said they'll keep filing civil suits for Burge's alleged victims even though he's been convicted because the men deserve to be compensated for the abuse they suffered and the years they lost in prison. The money is also a tangible way to help the men readjust to life on the outside, they said. So far, they've won millions of dollars in civil judgments and settlements, including $20 million for four former death-row inmates in 2008.

Kitchen is seeking unspecified damages, and he said that for him, it isn't about the money. It's about making people "take notice of what happened not just to me but to many other people like me."

Scores of suspects -- almost all of them black men -- have claimed that Burge and his men beat, suffocated and shocked them into confessing to crimes from murder to armed robbery from the 1970s to the 1990s. More than 20 men who claim they were abused by Burge or his officers are still incarcerated, attorneys said.

Burge is the only officer to be criminally charged in connection with the torture, but federal prosecutors have hinted that he won't be the last. Burge faces up to 45 years in prison when he's sentenced on Nov. 5.

Kitchen said he has mixed feelings about Burge's conviction.

"I don't know if I should cry (or) laugh," he said. "It's still unreal to me. It's still unreal to me being free."

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